EPIC 27 by Ug

[Ug the Barbarian]

EPIC 27
Probably my last game of CIV IV and one I really enjoyed. I very rarely play Always War but remember my lessons from Epic 4 which was sort of similar.
Settled one tile south of starting position (on hill) and went Hunting to Archery with initial research until techs started flowing in from the Internet.
My focus was to settle several defensive border cities which were strongly defended and keep the enemy civs away from my heartland so it could fund my army. This strategy was helped by the tailored map which reduced the approaches to several choke points.
I'd settled six cities by 10 AD


Continued to fight off enemy stacks from this basis for the next 1000 years


Built up my own first offensive stack to start work on the enemy cities


First enemy city falls


The Mayans are the first to fall


The Chinese are next to go


They continue to fall - the Mongols are the last major civ to go leaving Justinians scattered cities to face me alone.


Last enemy city falls in 1938AD for Conquest victory. Top surviving unit is shown in bottom right of image (176xp).


A few final stats showing the 90 enemy cities razed


The research element was interesting. Once I'd self researched the first few critical technologies, the Internet provided everything up until around 1700AD. However I had to self research Steel and Rifling as AI was taking unusual research routes.
Overall I enjoyed this one much more than I thought I would. The War Elephants really helped kill off enemy stacks in front of my cities before they could attack.
Fairly comfortable win - only real stress came when I faced my first Grenadier stacks with only War Elephants, Samurai and longbows. Many Thanks.

[Twinkletoes89]

Great Job! That is one fearsome Cavalry!

[T-hawk]

Yes, well done! Glad you enjoyed it and good to see you playing, Ug.

You researched Hunting-Archery? On Monarch, the AIs all start with Archery, so you get it as soon as you make two contacts. You probably didn't miss the 80 gold instead of spending those 80 beakers though.

I see a lot of cottages in your screenshots. I was also surprised at the amount of economic building that was required in this game, just to keep the budget almost balanced. I did it with Colossus coast and markets, but your approach of cottages might have been simpler. I see over 1000 gold in your treasury - did you spend any of it on upgrades or cash rushing?

I like the Flanking I+II promotions on that cavalry - good insurance against losing a bad 99% battle!

[Ug the Barbarian]

Yes, well done! Glad you enjoyed it and good to see you playing, Ug.

You researched Hunting-Archery? On Monarch, the AIs all start with Archery, so you get it as soon as you make two contacts. You probably didn't miss the 80 gold instead of spending those 80 beakers though.

I see a lot of cottages in your screenshots. I was also surprised at the amount of economic building that was required in this game, just to keep the budget almost balanced. I did it with Colossus coast and markets, but your approach of cottages might have been simpler. I see over 1000 gold in your treasury - did you spend any of it on upgrades or cash rushing?

I like the Flanking I+II promotions on that cavalry - good insurance against losing a bad 99% battle!

I wanted to get Archery asap and wasn't sure how long it might take to get it through the Internet so it was worth it I think.

I'd been through the cash shortage in previous epics with multiple opponents so tried to setup enough cottages in my heartland to cope with it. Was still in negative income a couple of times though.

Spent at least 15000gp through the game on upgrades - kept a good float until Cannon / Rifle / Cavalry drained it nearly all.

Also lost at least 3 'general linked units' on attacks from those kind of battles so the flank promotions were good - I had one of my other two surviving 'general' units who was very similar but 4 xp less.

[Compromise]

Razing every single AI city on AWM.... I have to say that's just impressive.

Well done, Ug. You make it seem so straightforward!